Divination
'Divination Magic ' Divination is also known as Oracular Magic. It comes as no surprise that mages of the past and present have turned their time and energy attempting to determine the future. Over time, this has expanded into the study and practice of all magic related to the flow of information through invoking or simply listening to the spirits of the past, present, and future. While efforts to consistently and accurately predict future events have been met with limited success at best, some great leaps have been made in other areas. For instance, a well-trained Diviner or Oracle can communicate with any magic user within a fair distance. They can pass along thoughts, emotions, ideas, words, pictures, and even some things that there aren't words for. In addition, they can actually burn magical energy (and in some cases, other things of value) in order to gain information about an object, person, or place. This field of magic also involves blocking such attempts at information gathering. As you would expect, these mages may also attempt to get a read of the future - these readings become more precise the closer the future that the mage is trying to get is relative to the present. Unlike many other kinds of magic, Divination is a gift to be developed, not a skill that can be learned. Consequently, Oracles and Diviners are very nearly the rarest kind of legal mage on the planet - the spirits won't share sensitive information with just anyone, after all - and only Holy Magic is harder to find. Being in a large population center is by no means a guarantee that you will have access to an oracle. Bastion, for instance, does not currently have one, although it's rumored that the visiting Sentinels might have brought a Sage with them... 'Examples of Divination in the World' Like most other mages who have the time, energy, and expertise, Diviners and Oracles can attempt to make magic items, and will generally do so if offered enough money. These range in power from talking black magic balls that offer halfhearted and ominous responses when asked reasonable questions ("Reply hazy," is Diviner slang for "What a stupid question.") to mirrors that will give you a ringside seat at your worst enemy's private meetings. Communication-capable magic items are much sought after, but take long enough to produce that messengers of all kinds are very much in business. Each of the Brightleaf Clans has one or two diviners, and the Evergreen Sentinels employ several more. These magic-users are called the Sages, and are responsible not only for helping to guide the clan, but also for naming each child born within the clan based on what they can see in the child's future. In terms of power, Oracles, Diviners, and Sages vary only by name and cultural expectations - the same set of abilities is available to each of them. Much more famous, though, is the Trade Net. The Trade Net is a series of large tomes found on each of the islands in the Hefrizian Principalities, each created by a pair of powerful Oracles that live there and sold to the merchant lords for a rather large pile of money, and it is these tomes that make such wide-scale exotic trade possible. Anything written in one of the tomes will be copied to each of the others, and they are currently set up to record what is for sale, by whom, and where they can be found, as well as potential offers, requests for certain merchandise and cargo, and several other things besides. The theft of one of these tomes is the only crime punished more harshly than piracy by the principalities, and the one group of theives ambitious enough to try it (about fifteen years ago) were killed in a grisly enough fashion that no one has since made the attempt. The current system in use is that a captain or trader wishing to use the tomes will submit his requested message - and a small fee - to the scribe charged with using it, and messages go in on a first-come first-served basis. The actual text of the tomes is viewable on any number of smaller books set up to display the contents of the trade net, but with no capability to alter it. These books are a penny a dozen (and in fact are only temporarily enchanted - most traders purchase a new one each time they dock in Hefriz). The Trade Net is the magical equivalent of an auction/trade-oriented relational database - and is absolutely necessary, as it would be impossible to effectively run the Hefrizian docks without such a system in place''.'' 'Divination Magic Mechanics' Divination Magic varies with the gifts of the caster. As such, there are variations, and it is essential that a player record which one they are using. Some Diviners can employ magical communications, can gain information about an object or location that they are allowed to examine, and can of course catch glimpses of the future, each of which is 1AP, marking the advantage as Low, Mid, and High Utility accordingly. The gift is so strong in some Diviners that they can recieve information about what is about to happen to them in a clear and immediate sense, and this is worth an additional 3AP for All Range Combat, and also qualifies as Low Utility if such sudden foresight is the only gift they have. In short, Divination Magic can be purchased as a 1, 2, 3, 4, or 6AP per rank advantage. Rank I: Casters with this level of proficiency might be able to send short messages to other diviners, see short, hazy glimpses of the past or future, or have unusual - if not always useful - insights about what their opponents are doing in combat or other contests. Rank II: Casters with this level of proficiency are now comfortable with their gifts and practiced at interpreting what the spirits-that-have-been and spirits-to-be are telling them. They can send messages to any magic user within a fair distance, obtain longer - if usually symbolic - visions of the past or future, and obtain clearer and more relevant insights about what their enemies are up to. Rank III: Diviners who have reached this level of ability are now almost fully in tune with the spirits around them. They can send messages to magic users across any distance and can occasionally impart messages to nonmagical people and beings close by. Visions of the future occasionally lapse into fully comprehensible and clear depictions of what is to come - even when the Diviner is not actively trying to gather information. Should the caster possess the more immediate gifts of foresight, they become incredibly difficult to surprise in a tense situation. Rank IV: Any oracle who has attained this level of ability is likely regarded as a national treasure - indeed, the very existence of anyone who provably has this much mastery over the ebb and flow of information would be a state secret in any sane society. Such Diviners would know things about people and places that are unknown to those living there, and rarely, if ever, miss their mark when it comes to making a prediction. Rank V+: Any mage with this kind of power is almost certainly some form of supernatural entity, or else has been blessed by one - perhaps by cohabiting with a powerful spirit of the world-which-is-not. These are the Oracles and Sages of legends, who make inescapable predictions that entangle kings, heroes, and whole civilizations in shining strands of unbreakable fate. Such a being cannot be surprised or ambushed, only overwhelmed, and can smoothly make changes that will bring about the future they desire while deftly avoiding potential paradoxes. 'Common Diviner Spells' While every Diviner has his or her own style and probably a few custom spells, the following are all common-use variants on spells for dealing with information, and are available to anyone who has taken the right variant of the Divination advantage. *Precognition - The caster can, by concentrating, receive information about events in the future. *Foresight - A more combat-applicable version of Precognition, the caster recieves insights about what his opponents are up to, what they might do next, when and where to dodge, etc. *Contact - The caster can contact others telepathically, although through a different agency than a Beguiler does. Rather than sending a message through sheer mental might, they simply convey information to another's mind. Because of this, Diviners cannot'' lie or even obfuscate the truth telepathically, while Beguilers can. On the other hand, Diviners can communicate with utterly alien or even shielded minds where Beguilers cannot. *Retrocognition - Another point of overlap between Beguilers and Diviners, although most Diviners tend to have this ability while many Beguilers do not. Additionally, a Diviner is limited to learning objective factual information about objects and places that he or she is permitted to interact with, while those using the Beguiler version are restricted to emotions, memories, and impressions. *Secret Fate - Diviners share a special relationship with the spirits of the world. All Diviners, regardless of what other powers they do or do not possess, cancel out a rank of any Divination advantage used against them for each rank of ability that they themselves possess, as the spirits of what-was, what-is, and what-is-not-yet refuse to divulge information about their favored correspondent. 'Rare Diviner Spells' ''The following spells are sometimes known to Diviners, but not included as part of any of the standard Diviner advantages owing to their unusual effects. As one might tell from the naming conventions, those who take Divination Magic the least seriously are the Diviners themselves. *It's How You Play the Game - Enterprising Diviners have turned their wits toward using their unique advantage in lucrative and sensible ways. Diviners who have learned this spell can win nearly at nearly any gambling endeavor, although not giving the trick away to humorless gamesters is its own trick... *Just as Planned - Some Diviners get into more trouble than others. Successful Oracles, however, know that any problem is an opportunity in disguise, and follow the best paths of fate as they spiral off of defeats and setbacks. This special advantage allows a Diviner, upon winning a roll brought about through the Flee action, to continue the event in the venue of his or her choice (Social, Utility, or any range of Combat). The Flee roll does not count as a victory for either group. *Didn't See That Coming - Some Diviners, as might be expected, become quite jaded about the fickle fingers of fate. After all, when surprises and shocks are few and far between, you learn to treasure what few you do receive, to the point that Diviners typicaly react with either boredom or delight when confronted with things that were supposed to be terrifying, disturbing, or threatening. This advantage acts as a special resistance that guards against intimidation and fear effects. *The Prophecy - Perhaps the most terrifying of Diviner magics, the difference between a prediction and a prophecy is that a prediction can still be argued with or overcome, and predictions have limits to their scope. Prophecies absolutely come true in some fashion, and tend to take a greater and greater toll upon those trying to bend a given prophecy to their own purposes as the greatest spirits of that-which-is-not-yet take exception to the arrogant mortals who think they can outwit fate.